Inside the Tigers: Raburn in for Inge

Who's hot: Ryan Raburn played second base all week in place of Placido Polanco, and he went 8-for-23 (.348) with four doubles. That's one reason that manager Jim Leyland said Raburn will play third base in place of Brandon Inge on Tuesday night. (The other reason, of course, is that Inge was 5-for-22 with 12 strikeouts this week, and is 11-for-51 with 26 strikeouts and no home runs this month.) Raburn is hitting .349 since joining the Tigers just before the All-Star break. "He's done a good job,'' Leyland said. "And when they've made a mistake, he's hit it.''

Who's not: Mike Rabelo had three of the Tigers' nine hits Sunday, and he drove in one of the three runs. But there's another part to catching, and that part isn't going well for the rookie. The Tigers have now lost eight of the last 10 games Rabelo has started, and in those 10 games the pitchers have combined for a 7.31 ERA.

Play of the week: It has to be Cameron Maybin's home run off Roger Clemens, doesn't it? Unless it's Maybin's first big-league at-bat, a strikeout Friday night against Andy Pettitte. "I told him, 'I hope you do that about 2,000 more times,' '' first-base coach Andy Van Slyke said. "He looked at me kind of funny. But then he thought for a second, and he said, 'Oh yeah, because that would mean I'd play for a long time.' ''

Matchup of the week: The games this week are big. Three with Cleveland, followed by four more with the Yankees. A bad week could put the Tigers in a big hole heading to September. But the biggest question that could be answered this week is Kenny Rogers' future. Rogers hasn't pitched since July 25. He hasn't won since July 4. He's started just six games for the Tigers this year. His return now would probably mean more to them than Joel Zumaya's return to the bullpen Tuesday. But can Rogers come back? We may know this week, because he said he'll try to throw off a bullpen mound Tuesday and might even be able to start a game by next Sunday.

Analysis: A 10-21 stretch sounds awful, doesn't it? Doesn't seem there's any way the Tigers can recover. But the fact is, the Tigers went 10-22 in a 32-game stretch that ended last Sept. 10, and they looked every bit this bad. They recovered then, and they made the playoffs. You wonder if they can do it again.